Bio

Current Position

Raye Rawls' practice area is in conflict transformation and dialogue. She is an attorney, arbitrator, and mediator and holds a Masters Degree in Human Resources.

Current Activities and Expertise

Raye Rawls has served as Public Service Faculty at the J.W. Fanning Institute for Leadership Development since 2004. She is an attorney, arbitrator and mediator and holds a Master’s Degree in Human Resources. She has mediated and arbitrated thousands of cases in government institutions, court systems, corporations and with private parties. Since 1983, she has traveled extensively throughout the United States offering courses in basic and advanced mediation, arbitration, conflict management, designing conflict management systems and valuing diversity. Her courses have been approved by several state bar associations, the National Association of Social Workers and other professional organizations. In 2002, the Supreme Court of Georgia appointed her to a five-year term on the Georgia Commission on Dispute Resolution–the body responsible for establishing ADR policies and procedures in the courts of Georgia. In 2018, the Georgia Supreme Court Commission on Dispute Resolution and the Dispute Resolution Section of the State Bar of Georgia awarded her with the Chief Justice Harold G. Clarke Award in recognition of her outstanding contributions to the field of alternative dispute resolution in Georgia. She is a member of the State Bar of Georgia.

Previous Experience

Prior to joining the J.W. Fanning Institute for Leadership Development in 2004, Rawls worked in the private sector teaching and providing services in mediation, arbitration and other forms of dispute resolution and conflict management. Rawls was the founding president-elect of the Georgia Chapter of the Association for Conflict Resolution. Rawls was an Administrative Law Judge in the State of Georgia, and a former assistant dean of the Georgia State University College Law. Currently, she is a Senior Associate with Essential Partners (formerly the Public Conversations Project), an organizations located in Cambridge, Massachusetts whose mission is to guide, train and inspire individuals, organizations and communities to constructively address conflicts relating to values and worldviews.